Scientists from California reported they discovered a pill which improves physical endurance. Tests have been made on non-exercising mice. Ron Evans and Vihang Narkar at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in La Jolla, California ran some tests and found out that these pills not only burn calories, but succeed in turning couch potato mice into athletes. One day these discoveries are believed to help people suffering from diabetes, obesity or muscular dystrophy regain their health.

Narkar and Evans are continuing their older work that proved that active mice that are given the experimental drug GW1516 ran farther and had better endurance than those that were not given the drug. But when they tried GW1516 in couch potato mice they were not better on the treadmill.

Therefore they tried something else, a synthetic compound called AICAR, which mimics the compounds our bodies produce during exercise. "This is a drug that is like pharmacological exercise," Evans says. "After four weeks of receiving the drug, the mice were behaving as if they'd been exercised."

After realizing the incredible effects of these drugs, the two scientists created a test o detect the presence of these two drugs in someone’s body. They are working with the World Anti-Doping Agency to develop the test, perhaps in time to test the 2008 Olympic athletes.

Evans predicted in the online journal Cell, the drug would "fly off the shelves." Evans has already been contacted by athletes and obese people who read about their discovery. These drugs activate different genetic switches and it tricks the body into believing it has exercised.